How to Begin a Search For a Swing Set

Boys and girls love to swing on swing sets, slide down the slides and you can build a play structure for your children. Building in your own backyard is not as a difficult of a process as might imagine, it just requires following detailed instructions and using household tools. Having carpentry skills will make the process easier. What do you do if you are not handy? First, enlist a relative or friend, someone that has some basic knowledge about building to help you with the project. There are basically 4 different ways you can build, this article will offer some insight into the playground world.

Kits Without Lumber - These kits usually include the all the accessories and the hardware package. The hardware package should include swing hangers, brackets, heave gauge bolts, screws and step by step directions. These kits typically include everything you need to build the swing set except the lumber. Visit your local Home Depot, Lowes, or lumber yard and hand select the timber. Make sure you purchase boards that are designed for playgrounds and ask for a customer service representative to help you. Timber choices include cedar, southern yellow pine, redwood, plastic coated boards and more. When you purchase a kit without the lumber make sure you understand exactly what is included so there are no surprises when you begin construction. Kits usually do not include slides so this will most likely be a separate purchase from the kit. Typically, you can build one of these swing sets with very little or no carpentry experience as long as you have an adult helper and a weekend.

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Purchase locally at a full line dealer store. Chances are you have a full line swing set dealer within an hour or two hour drive from your home. Take the time to visit a showroom and learn about all the different types of timber, designs and accessories. Think of it as an educational outing and your mission to learn as much as you can. Local stores usually have many models on display and the children can actually try them out. Explore all of your options before you purchase.

Ready to assemble - Makes the buying decision easier as everything is included in the package. This means the lumber is included which usually, has been pre-drilled, pre-cut, sanded, and stained, saving you a lot of time. It also means that you will receive all of the hardware, nuts and bolts to assemble the swing set. Plus, you will also receive the swing set accessories. Ready to assemble offers a great value as the kits are all inclusive with detailed instructions for construction. In other words, these ready to assemble swing sets are delivered to your home and everything you will need is include so you can build your children one fantastic looking playset.

Build from scratch - If you a very handy person, or in the construction trade you may consider building a playset from the ground up. This will require a set of plans and a shopping list for components, hardware, lumber and accessories.

How to Begin a Search For a Swing Set

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Growing Your Business - Five Key Things to Make You Successful

Has growing your business ever been one of your New Year's "resolutions"? Have you then -- like the rest of us - realized, at some point later, that the year is quickly disappearing in a haze of last minute crises and customer problems and that you haven't started working on your resolutions yet? So make this year different, take 2 minutes to look at these 5 keys to growing your business successfully and take the first step toward turning your intentions into actions.

First, be clear about what you want to achieve. You want to grow - but what? Sales - for sure, but don't go after increased sales any cost. Focus on the profitability of each deal and aggressively pursue only those which will grow your bottom line. How do you do that? Ask yourself what has made you successful up to now - why do your customers buy from you not your competitors? Focus on how you make money - the things that make you unique. Also take a look at the characteristics of your profitable customers, what do they look like, what things do they have in common? Avoid the temptation to cut prices or offer special discounts to get the "first" order. It becomes very difficult to the raise prices to normal levels.

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Second, find a way to handle the routine - but essential - work that takes place daily, so that you can focus on growing your business. "Routine" work -- for example receiving, invoicing, "set up" of machines -- can be written up as a process so that each step is clear and can be followed exactly. You can also measure the length of time to complete these jobs and the number of mistakes made and come up with averages or standards for measuring performance levels. Use the same idea to delegate. Tell your supervisors and managers what decisions they can make on their own - for example what they can do to solve customer complaints - without coming back to you and put it in writing. To make sure you don't lose control, make a note of the areas of your business which you know will get you into trouble quickly if they're not watched closely - for example cash in the Bank, order backlog, machine utilization or order fill rates. Then have someone bring you (as opposed to you going to get it) a summary of the actual numbers regularly - daily or weekly as appropriate. Make everyone aware of what you consider to be acceptable performance in these areas and share the results with them. If they have to be improved, tell them why - then ask them how to make the improvements and, if it sounds logical, let them get on with it.

And what if your people aren't capable of doing that? Third, hire or train people who can. Look for the people already in your company who you know not only have the skills and experience to do their job but who also share your values and standards - they'll do things to the performance levels you want. And let them deal with stuff that requires a quick reaction but which doesn't directly impact what you're doing to increase sales and profits. Remember, it doesn't matter how a job is done, all that matters is how well it's done. When you next have to hire start by making a list of the people you've met who could do the job and approach them. If you have to recruit, don't take the best of the bunch you see, use temporary help until you find what you want.

Fourth, keep "score" regularly. Imagine what would happen if an NBA, NHL or NFL team only saw the results of each game when it was over. The coaches and managers would have no opportunity to adjust their game plan for what had actually taken place in each period. Growing your business is no different. Take a half day just after the results for each quarter become available to compare what has happened against the increase in sales and profits you wanted to achieve and the goals you set for yourself and your staff. Then make the necessary adjustments. Have each of your sales reps. forecast their sales for the next month - and then go back and discuss what actually happened and, if necessary ask them what has to be done to improve. Have your warehouse and manufacturing teams forecast performance levels in their areas and do the same follow up. If they don't know how to do this, bring in someone to train them.

Fifth and final point, I was talking to someone recently who has grown his business from zero to almost million in sales in just 5 years. Guess what he told me? It's his view that anyone could have seen the opportunity he saw (he actually thought about it for 2 years before forming the company) and anyone could have developed the products. The major reason for his success he believes lay in the fact that he executed and executed well. One of the keys to successful execution is to develop an Action Plan which has SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Recorded - or written - and Time related). Another is to find people who have experience growing companies and either use them as advisors or form an Advisory Board. Pay them if you have to, it's an investment, not a cost.

Anyone can make a resolution or intend to get something done, but not everyone can transform it into reality. To grow your business successfully don't sacrifice profits for increased sales; turn routine tasks into processes, set performance levels for them and delegate without losing control; hire people who have the skills and values you need; check the score and adjust your game plan and execute by turning intentions into actions.

© Copyright ProfitPATH, a division of JDS & Associates Inc., 2006

Growing Your Business - Five Key Things to Make You Successful

Grow Calendar 2011

Small Business - 3 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder to Grow Your Bottom Line

Every small business reaches a point where you are maxed out on production and are forced to make a decision on how you can continue to grow. For most, it means hiring more staff, working longer hours or investing money to expand your business. There are alternatives you should consider that will allow you to continue to grow your bottom line without having to lay out more funds for staff or expensive equipment.

Sell your knowledge.
No matter what market or industry you are in, as a small business owner you possess a wealth of knowledge. That knowledge is valuable to those who do not have it. If you have an established internet presence, you can turn your knowledge into a marketable product.

Grow Calendar 2011

This might take the form of an instruction video, an operators manual, or an e-book of expert tips and tricks of the trade. You can go as big or as small as you wish by writing the product yourself or going all out and hiring a production company to create a video series.

The beauty of this type of product is that you invest a small amount of time or money once to create the product and then it generates ongoing residual income that requires little or no work to maintain. In other words, do the work once and then get paid for it over and over again.

Drop shipped products.
One of the easiest ways to sell more products without having to manufacture them yourself is to find complimentary products from other companies to sell to your existing customer base. Use your connections within your industry to your benefit or spend a little time sourcing out companies who want to increase their sales in new markets.

Most businesses are looking to make more sales. They will be interested in giving you a discount if you are willing to find those sales for them. This will allow you to set your own price for the goods and turn a profit. All you have to do is take the orders, receive payment and then forward the orders to your supplier. In turn, they will ship the products directly to your customers.

Use another company's resources to manufacture more goods.
If your demand exceeds your supply, but you do not want to expand your business or hire more staff, you might consider contracting another company to manufacture some of your products for you. Outsourcing some of your production to another company may mean a little less profit on those goods but it also means you do not have to buy more equipment, find a larger facility or hire more staff.

You will need to sign a legal agreement with the company to protect your ownership of the product and the terms of sale of the product.

These three alternatives can take your business to the next level by adding new revenue streams to your income without tapping into your resources. You will not have to work longer hours, hire more staff or invest any money. You will be working smarter, not harder. In many cases, you can actually work less and make more.

Small Business - 3 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder to Grow Your Bottom Line

Grow Calendar 2011

Predictions of Mayan Calendar Followers? 2012 is Just Around the Corner

Well have you heard the latest of the newest Doom and Gloomers? This on; the Mayan Calendar, which officially ends in 2012 the last year being 2011. Yah check this out; http://www.ioon.net/mayaonics/EngPages/summary.htm.

Actually either on December 21, 2011 or on October 28, 2011. The studies of the Mayan Calendar are interesting in that many have said the Mayans, Aztecs and event the Incans were visited by alien extraterrestrials. Perhaps, and that their calendar came from them. Cool, free calendars, you know I got one in the mail the other day from a company advertising their wares. Maybe that is how the free calendar advertising idea began? But remember that all possible futures can be controlled by free will. If you want to have fun with some math here is how they get to the number of 2012, you might be surprised what that number coincides with in higher mathematics.

Grow Calendar 2011

However realize that the Chinese Culture has historic writings in excess of 10,000 years back, which predates these cultures writings. Not saying that either is older than the other since the DNA (please read the "Seven Sister's of Eve) show that the Chinese and the American Indian are related and the African (maybe you have some type B blood in your family?), European and US populations excluding the American Indian are all similar to each other. Two distinctly different groups, everything is different down to the type of earwax your glands produce. Perhaps it was the Neanderthal DNA influences in all of that. Never the less the Indians of the Americas came over from the land bridge across the area we now know as the Bering Straights and formed the population bases here and mixed with whatever was here already if anything which would then include the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas prior to any involvement with the Spanish Armada brigade and Spanish Explorers. Were they visited by aliens? Who knew of a possible future? Who knows, probably possible if one believes of the reverse engineering projects on spacecraft in New Mexico. There has been so much debate in all of this and mathematicians constantly try to reason the dates with our faulty numerical system based on ten.

http://www.2near.com/edge/maya/index.html

and I can recommend a book on this subject which I bought and later decided not to read;

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D1...7948249-9099856 .

Now remembering that the Earth Wobbles and therefore has cycles of non-perfect elliptical orbits of the sun and gets hit by meteors, comets and asteroids every 12,000 or so years which just screws up everything including and debated life on Earth (Dinosaurs for instance) it would be hard to say if this was accurate at all. Now if the Earth does pivot on it's axis in 2012 which is entirely possible and actually should have happened already, but did not to any large degree in the 1936-1956, then one might infer that the calendar is absolutely correct? I would differ such an opinion but would not preclude it from possible future realities of the Earths changes, which could incite a global cooling or warming. If such an event takes place there will be extreme problems near the waters edge as the planet moves it's axis.

Extreme weather would be an understatement, volcanic activity, Earthquakes etc, would occur, major activity. So with all this study having been available should one be concerned? Yes, because the cycles although may not come in our lifetime, they surely will come as they have come before. Can we do anything about such possibilities? Yes, we can balance out the planet by moving ice around, changing reservoirs (China is doing this now, not that they have figured it out yet), etc on the surface and in the perfect balance will come a better orbit.

With that better orbit will also come changes we may not want such as changes in trade winds and cycles we count on to grow crops and shift the availability of water resources to areas that are now highly populated. However if we can change the weather and create the weather and the rain and the rain cycles to our needs we can control the actual destiny of our species and be the better for it. And actually everything will work better since their will be less wobble and more control over inertia guidance systems, satellite placement, smart bombs to fly a cruise missile through Saddam's bathroom window, and self flying planes, trucks, trains, boats, submarines, cars and ships.

Anyway it does appear that we nearly have the necessary technologies to serve mankind in fixing these issues before 2012, the question really is will we and is the Mayan Calendar even an issue?

Predictions of Mayan Calendar Followers? 2012 is Just Around the Corner

Grow Calendar 2011

What Does It Mean To Grow A Healthy Business?

A thriving business needs to grow or it stagnates and may even fail. But what does it mean to grow a healthy business?

First, understand that growing revenues is a necessary but not sufficient aspect of growth. Thinking of growth exclusively in terms of revenue is like dumping fertilizer on a garden without watering or weeding it. Inevitably, the crop dies.

Grow Calendar 2011

Second, growth is iterative. The process is repeated over and over again. In this sense there is no first or last step. Still, you can posit a starting point, a platform from which you begin and to which you return to measure your progress, assess your direction, and refine your vision.

One way to posit a meaningful starting point is to assess current reality and how it differs from what you intend to create. What are you experiencing now? What is working? Where are you dissatisfied? Look at both external, measurable factors such as sales, prospects, productivity, and experiential and qualitative factors such as engagement, enthusiasm, creativity.

Examine your motives for wanting new growth. Are you dissatisfied with current reality? Do you sense that something new wants to come into being? Are you feeling impelled by a creative drive? By boredom? Fear? Competition? Envy? List your motives without censoring them so that you can understand what is really true for you. Every motive is an expression of a sort of worldview. If you repress or misstate your motives, you are the prisoner of their worldview and unable to examine the underlying beliefs.

With your motives clearly in mind, take a look at how you are doing now. Measure how many clients you have, how much income you are earning, how much time you are spending delivering services, marketing, and administering your business. Review feedback from clients and look at what others in your field are doing that you admire. Talk to your employees, or rather, listen to them. What is the turnover rate? How happy are they? How engaged?

Look at how much you enjoying your work. What aspects of it bring the most joy? What sorts of clients or customers seem to benefit most from what you do and who you are? Where is the sweet spot where you add the most value with the least struggle? What are the key intangible sources of energy and inspiration? Again, ask your employees the same questions.

As you gather the qualitative and quantitative data about your business, reflect on the circumstances and choices that shaped these results. What were your goals six months or a year ago? What personal and professional factors have been at play since your last business assessment? ? What forces in the marketplace affected your decisions and your results? What were your aspirations and assumptions? Notice how current reality correlates with thinking, beliefs, practices, and intentions that were in place three, six, or nine months ago.

Does this sound like a lot of work? It is, and it will repay your attention by revealing new possibilities for intention and action and by showing you where you can let go of outmoded policies, procedures, and attitudes. By regularly reviewing what you have and what you want, you generate a healthy structural tension -- a tension that can impel you to grow your business in a holistic, grounded, and integrated way.

What Does It Mean To Grow A Healthy Business?

Grow Calendar 2011

Small Bathroom Remodeling Ideas

Small bathroom remodeling requires some solid plans when you have little space to work with. You should focus on one or two main areas if you're looking to improve the look and feel of a small bathroom. This article will look at a couple of ideas you might use in your next remodeling project.

Sinks Rule

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If you're limited in space, you may want to focus on the sink and cabinet area of your bathroom. Sinks can add an incredible value and convenience to any small bathroom. You can find many wonderful ideas by looking online ad different plumbing supply companies. If you're lucky enough to live in or near a larger city, you can find many displays already set up.

One of the things that really complete the sinks look is the faucet that you choose. This is an area where you should not spare any expense. It really is true that you get what you pay for when it comes to faucets and sinks.

Think about the Toilet to

The next area that you should focus on is the commode or toilet. In today's world there are so many unique designs that a toilet is no longer just a toilet. If you are thinking in this direction than you would want to be able to marriage up your toilet in your sink choices to be a nice combination.

Get Some New Ideas

If you're fresh out of ideas for your small bathroom remodeling project you can often times find wonderful ideas in your local home improvement store. Memo often have free brochures right at the front of the store when you first go in, and most of your home depot or Lowes department stores.

Small Bathroom Remodeling Ideas

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Get Your Hair To Grow Faster: 3 Simple Steps To Give You The Longer Hair You Want

Wishing for longer and more beautiful hair? Get your hair to grow faster by simply sifting through the trainloads of information that you will find available in the Internet. But then, not everything you will find online can truly give you the results you are looking for. For this, make certain that you find the most reliable sources of information you can lay your hands on so as not to waste your time and your money.

Plus, of course, you would not want to throw away the amount of effort you pitched in by getting misleading information. Carefully assess each piece of information. Determine which can essentially help and which will not merit you any hair growth at all. Take a peek at the following hair care advices that you may eventually find useful in growing your tresses:

Grow Calendar 2011

1. Use Therapeutic Oils To Massage Your Hair

There is a great deal of therapeutic oils that you will find being sold in the market that may truly help you get your hair to grow faster. The selection includes jojoba oil, olive oil, coconut oil, Rosemary Oil, Lavender Oil, Mira oil and a lot more others which have been proven to offer hair growth-hopers a bounty in their mane. Simply find the oil that appeals to you the most and make sure that you have someone to regularly massage it for you. Otherwise, you can do it yourself. After all it does not matter who will apply the oil. Such oils are proven to essentially carry some natural ingredients that can swiftly make your hair grow longer, thicker, healthier and therefore, more beautiful whether you are the one applying them or somebody else.

2. The Domino Effect Of Getting A Deep And Relaxing Head Massage

Just take care that the oil is properly massaged deep into the roots of your scalp. You can simply leave the oil in your head or copy what others do - that of covering with a hair cap or shower cap to attract natural heat which can be a great team-up for the oils to finally help you grow hair.

In case you do not know, regular massaging of the scalp can help one achieve better blood circulation. This is very helpful if you are one of those hoping that your hair follicles will grow healthier and stronger and therefore, trigger growth further. In fact, there is a domino effect in massaging the head. For one, it is not solely the hair follicles that will benefit from getting a consistent massage because you will likewise find the high stress level in your life getting alleviated as well.

3. Proper Nutrition And Genuine Care

To finish off; one must also be very particular with what he will feed his body. Didn't you know that what you eat is what you get? So if you find your mane getting dull and brittle, step back a little to find out where you have gone wrong in your diet or lifestyle. Look into how you sleep and exercise. Perhaps you are lacking in any of these. Therefore, eat more protein-enriched foods like dairy, meat, eggs, fish, nuts, cereals and countless other foods jam-packed with protein. Not only will these help you get your hair to grow faster but there is no doubt you are going to get glowing skin as well!

Get Your Hair To Grow Faster: 3 Simple Steps To Give You The Longer Hair You Want

Grow Calendar 2011